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| Yours truly with Professor Neal Rappleye, deciphering a Maya stele that reads, “I, Nephi, made this stele.” |
Speaking of the lack of direct archaeological verification for an Israelite exodus from Egypt, James K. Hoffmeier, an American Egyptologist who has written extensively on the historicity of the Exodus, remarked,
There are several possible reasons for this absence of evidence. The first possibility is, as the Biblical minimalists suppose, that the Hebrews were never there.
A second, more likely explanation is that we have had unrealistic expectations as to what archaeology can deliver. After all, what evidence, short of an inscription in a Proto-Canaanite script stating “bricks made by Hebrew slaves” would be considered proof that the Israelites were in Egypt? Archaeology’s ability to determine the ethnicity of a people in the archaeological record, especially of the Israelites at such an early period, is quite limited. Assuming the Israelites were in Egypt during Egypt’s New Kingdom (c. 1540– 1200 B.C.), what kind of pottery would they have used? What house plans would they have lived in? What sort of burial traditions did they practice? And would archaeologists be able to identify the burial of these early Israelites who ended up as slaves anyway? And how are all these things different from those of Canaanites or other Semitic-speaking peoples in Egypt at this time?
Hoffmeier reminds us that inscriptional evidence in the form of papyri is rare from the Nile delta region, and that royal propaganda does not report anything negative about Pharaoh (such as him being bested by a ragtag group of former slaves). As such,
Because we cannot expect to find textual proof of the Israelites in Egypt, we must ask whether the Bible’s report is plausible in light of secondary evidence provided by archaeology. Do elements of the story have the ring of authenticity or are they fanciful? Did pastoralists from the Levant migrate to Egypt during times of famine? Is there evidence from Egypt of foreigners being pressed into hard labor for Pharaoh? Do the geographical places named in the Exodus story square with realities on the ground?
(James K. Hoffmeier, “Out of Egypt: The Archaeological Context of the Exodus,” in Ancient Israel in Egypt and Exodus, ed. Margaret Warker [Washington, D. C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 2012], 3, 5.)
As a fun exercise, let’s paraphrase Hoffmeier’s comments here and apply them to the Book of Mormon. Keeping in mind that, like the papyri of the Nile delta, pre-Classic Maya codices have all but perished in the wet, humid climate of Mesoamerica or to looters, and keeping in mind that “there’s about 6,000 known Maya sites and we’ve only researched about 5 percent of them,” and keeping in mind that of those “6,000 or so known Maya sites, we only know the ancient names of about a dozen of them,” let us proceed.
There are several possible reasons for this absence of evidence. The first possibility is, as Book of Mormon minimalists suppose, that the Nephites were never there.
A second, more likely explanation is that we have had unrealistic expectations as to what archaeology can deliver. After all, what evidence, short of an inscription in a Proto-Mayan script stating “gold plates made by Nephites” would be considered proof that the Nephites were in Mesoamerica? Archaeology’s ability to determine the ethnicity of a people in the archaeological record, especially of the Nephites at such an early period, is quite limited. Assuming the Nephites were in Mesoamerica during the preclassic Maya period (c. 1000 BC–AD 250), what kind of pottery would they have used? What house plans would they have lived in? What sort of burial traditions did they practice? And would archaeologists be able to identify the burial of these early Nephites who ended up in Mesoamerica anyway? And how are all these things different from those of Maya or other Maya-speaking peoples in Mesoamerica at this time?
Because we cannot expect to find textual proof of the Nephites in Mesoamerica, we must ask whether the Book of Mormon’s report is plausible in light of secondary evidence provided by archaeology. Do elements of the story have the ring of authenticity or are they fanciful? Is there evidence for migration and population patterns that are consistent with the Book of Mormon? Is there evidence from Mesoamerica of social stratification, high literacy, seasonal warfare, intricate calendrical systems, and inter-ethnic socio-religious competition? Does the geographical outline in the Book of Mormon square with realities on the ground?
Anyone remotely familiar with the work of Mesoamericanists such as Mark Wright, Brant Gardner, John Sorenson, or John Clark will know the answers to these questions, and can therefore perhaps appreciate: (1) that the issue is much more complicated than some people on the Internet would have us believe, and (2) that there is indeed much to say about the Book of Mormon in ancient Mesoamerica.
